tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Jul 03 06:57:55 1998
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Brief Music Theory Lesson
- From: "Qermaq" <[email protected]>
- Subject: Brief Music Theory Lesson
- Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 10:03:26 -0400
ghItlh DloraH:
>If what you're saying about the klingon scale was applied to our scale then
>we really only have seven notes.
>But Octave means eight.
>
>I'm confused.
I hope you all excuse this off-topic post - it is meant to help us have less
of them.
'Octave' can be thought of in a couple ways. Yes, the oct- part implies an
eight-(diatonic-)note interval, such as A B C D E F G A - A to A is 8 notes
and an Octave. BUT it is also the name of the scientific phenomenon of
doubling the frequency of a pitch. ex. A=220 Hz, 220*2=440 Hz, or the A an
Octave up.
And yes, the common major scale we hear most often really is a seven-note
scale. The eighth note is a repeat (octave, remember?) of the first one.
Now to Klingon. MO describes a 'nonave' - This term is really kind of
meaningless, except that by contrast to an octave which spans eight notes
the nonave spans nine. His mention on 'nonave' is a meaningless red herring,
I'm afraid. No one knows the interval he refers to. I suspect he likes
charghwI's twelfth-spanning nine-note scale (with the ninth note a twelfth,
by our measurements, above the first - a ratio of 3:1, appropriate for the
Klingon 3 motif) but it is not known what the scale is.
Any future discussion of this really should be off list, as this is way too
technical for our known Klingon vocabulary. I know SuStel and I have
discussed this briefly, and charghwI' and others as well. Be warned that it
quickly becomes mere speculation.
Qermaq